An analysis article from Yahoo Finance points out that although dividends have contributed approximately one-third to the S&P 500's total return over the past century, their share of total return has significantly diminished since the 1990s. The article explains that this is primarily due to a continuous decline in yields and the fact that large-cap stocks have had dividend yields below 2% for most of this century. Additionally, the rise of stock buybacks as a method of returning value to shareholders has also led to a decrease in the importance of dividends in total return.